Lavras  School 


BRAZIL 


AS  A MISSION  FIELD 


1 IRVf—  > 

S.  H.  CHESTER:, 


‘Brazil  as  a Mission  Field. 


BY  S.  H.  CHESTEK. 


IN  sailing  from  New  York  to  Rio  de  Ja- 
neiro the  ship’s  track  lies  eastward  about 
one  thousand  miles  and  then  southward 
about  thirty-six  hundred  miles.  The 
greater  part  of  this  jo’urney  is  through  an 
ocean  desert.  It  is  very  rarely  that  either 
ships  or  sea  fowl  or  even  flying  fish  are  visi- 
ble. A journey  of  about  twenty  days  brings  us 
tc  the  harbor  of  Rio,  the  capital  of  the  United 
States  of  South  America. 

After  crossing  the  equator  one  observes  that 
the  Southern  heavens  are  not  so  rich  in  con- 
stellations as  the  Northern.  The  Southern 
Cross  is  quite  insignificant  in  comparison  with 
the  Great  Dipper,  which  is  still  to  be  seen  on 
the  far  Northern  horizon,  turned  bottom  up- 
wards. 

A BRAZILIAX  CITY. 

The  Bay  of  Rio  is  enclosed  in  a circuit  of 
about  eighty  miles  of  coast  line,  along  the  edge 
of  which  and  running  back  in  the  gorges  be- 
tween the  hills  are  the  lines  of  houses  which 
make  up  the  city.  They  are  all  of  the  Latin 
style  of  architecture,  exactly  like  the  houses  we 
see  in  Lisbon  or  in  Naples.  They  are  of  stucco 


walls  with  tiled  roofs,  and  painted  in  all  the 
colors  of  the  rainbow.  Many  of  them  are 
adorned  with  a profusion  of  sculptured  and  bas- 
relief  ornaments.  The  business  streets  are  nar- 
row, mean,  and  ill-smelling,  and  the  pity  is 
that  so  little  fire  is  used  that  there  is  little 
hope  of  a “ Chicago  ” conflagration  to  clear 
them  out  and  make  room  for  something  more 
modern.  The  principal  one  is  called  the  “ Ouvi- 
dor,”  on  which  no  vehicles  are  allowed  except 
at  specified  hours,  and  which,  in  the  afternoons, 
is  always  crowded  with  pedestrians,  many  of 
them  very  stylishly  attired,  some  going  on  busi- 
ness errands  and  some  conversing  in  the  most 
animated  style  on  the  morning’s  proceedings 
of  the  National  Congress. 

The  business  houses  and  residences  are  in- 
termingled. The  balcony  windows,  which  are 
the  universal  feature  of  domestic  architecture, 
are  always  full  of  women  leaning  on  their  el- 
bows observing  and  being  observed.  This  phe- 
nomenon appears  everywhere  in  Brazil,  not 
only  in  large  cities,  but  also  in  small  towns  and 
even  in  farmhouses  in  the  country. 

There  are  many  beautiful  gardens  in  Rio  of 
tropical  flowers  and  foliage  plants,  palms  and 
grasses,  and  avenues  of  overarching  bamboo. 
The  municipality  deserves  credit  for  its  efforts 
to  beautify  the  city  in  this  way.  Almost  every 
private  residence  that  aspires  to  any  degree  of 
elegance  is  surrounded  by  a lovely  flower  gar- 
den. 

By  a cogwheel  railway  we  ascend  the  Cor- 
covado  Mountain,  from  the  top  of  which  is  to 


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be  seen  a panorama  of  mountains,  bay,  and  city 
of  indescribable  beauty.  The  mountains  rise 
precipitously  in  all  manner  of  quaint  shapes, 
many  of  them  being  needle  pointed  and  others 
like  a sugar  loaf.  These,  with  the  crystal  wa- 
ters of  the  bay,  the  houses  in  their  bright  col- 
ors, the  gardens  in  their  tropical  luxuriance  of 
foliage,  and,  above  all,  the  sky  at  sunset,  with 
such  brilliancy  of  such  varied  and  ever-chan- 
ging hues,  altogether  make  a scene  to  fill  the 
soul  of  a painter  with  ecstasy  and  despair.  Not 
all  the  cities  of  Brazil  possess  this  wealth  of 
natural  advantages;  but  most  of  the  larger 
cities  an  the  coast  present  an  attractive  and 
picturesque  appearance.  The  city  of  Sao  Paulo 
has  been  built  up  since  the  development  of  the 
coffee  industry,  and  is  much  more  modern  and 
progressive  in  all  respects  than  Rio  de  Janeiro. 
It  has  handsome  stores,  strong  banks,  compara- 
tively wide  and  well-paved  streets,  and  trolley 
cars  managed  by  the  same  people  who  run  the 
lines  on  Broadway,  New  York. 

A well-to-do  Brazilian  is  very  particular  as  to 
what  is  on  the  inside  of  his  yard  enclosure,  but 
is  sublimely  indifferent  as  to  what  is  on  the 
outside.  The  wealthiest  man  in  Bahia  has  a 
palatial  mansion  in  the  midst  of  a lovely  gar- 
den enclosed  by  a tall  iron  fence.  He  owns  a 
large  area  of  land  contiguous  to  his  dwelling, 
from  the  rental  of  w^hich  he  derives  his  income. 
I noticed  that  this  ground  was  covered  with  a 
large  number  of  very  small  and  very  dirty 
hovels,  evidently  occupied  by  very  poor  people. 
The  plot  of  ground  immediately  adjoining  his 


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yard  fence  he  had  rented  out  for  stock  yards. 
The  city  of  Bahia,  however,  is  not  to  be  taken 
as,  in  all  respects,  typical  of  Brazil.  The  great 
majority  of  its  population  are  negroes,  many 
of  whose  ancestors  only  two  generations  back 
were  native  Africans. 

PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY. 

The  Amazon  River  and  other  general  fea- 
tures of  the  physical  geography  of  Brazil  are 
familiar  and  well  known.  One  very  remark- 
able feature  of  it  was  unknown  to  me,  and  I 
have  only  seen  it  referred  to  in  a book  on  Bra- 
zil written  by  Prof.  Louis  Agassiz.  It  is  that 
very  nearly  the  whole  surface  of  Brazil  is  cov- 
ered by  the  same  character  of  top  soil.  This 
soil  is  a dark-red  clay  mingled  with  gravel. 
Professor  Agassiz  pronounced  it  to  be  a glacial 
drift — a sort  of  paste  spread  over  the  surface 
of  the  country  when,  some  time  back  in  the 
geological  past,  a great  glacier  slided  down 
from  the  sides  of  Andes  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 
The  stratum  has  an  average  thickness  of  sev- 
eral feet,  and,  like  all  glacial  drift  soil,  is,  fer- 
tile and  productive.  It  produces  an  abundant 
food  supply  for  the  present  population  with  the 
most  superficial  kind  of  cultivation.  In  North- 
ern Brazil  the  elevation  of  the  land  near  the 
eastern  coast  causes  a precipitation  of  moisture 
before  the  ocean  breeze  travels  far  into  the 
interior.  In  consequence  of  this,  the  country 
is  subject  to  droughts,  severe  and  long  pro- 
tracted, during  which  the  people  are  obliged 
to  leave  home  and  come  toward  the  coast  in 


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search  of  food.  With  this  exception,  which 
perhaps  does  not  include  more  than  one-sixth 
of  the  total  area  of  the  country,  the  capacity 
of  the  land  for  supporting  population  must  be 
much  larger  than  that  of  the  United  States  of 
North  America.  The  ccftton  plant  grows  indefi- 
nitely without  renewing  until  it  becomes  a 
tree,  and  for  the  first  three  years  yields  abun- 
dantly. The  ravages  of  insects,  however,  have 
greatly  interfered  with  the  production  of  cot- 
ton. There  are  immense  coffee  plantations 
which  formerly  yielded  very  handsome  profits. 
In  recent  years  the  impositio-n  of  foolish  ex- 
port duties  has  almost  destroyed  the  profits  of 
coffee  raising.  There  is  no  finer  quality  of  cof- 
fee than  the  best  grade  of  well-seasoned  Rio. 
The  coffee  which  the  Brazilians  give  you  in 
their  homes  is  as  good  as  any  that  the  traveler 
will  find  in  France  or  . Italy.  The  poor  repu- 
tation of  Rio  coffee  is  due  to  the  fact  that  so 
much  of  it  has  been  used  in  this  country  in 
an  unseasoned  state.  It  is  said  that  some  of 
the  famed  Mocha  coffee  of  Constantinople  grows 
on  Brazilian  coffee  plants.  The  small  round 
grains  which  grow  one  in  a pod  are  separated 
from  the  flat  grains  and  sent  to  Aden,  in  Ara- 
bia, where  they  are  put  up  in  bags  of  Arabian 
cloth  and  shipped  all  over  the  world  as  Mocha 
coffee.  The  valleys  produce  abundantly  of 
sugar  cane  and  rice  and  beans  and  mandioca 
with  almost  no  cultivation  after  the  seeds  are 
once  planted.  A large  variety  of  tropical  bread 
fruits  contribute  to  the  food  supply.  The  grass 


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on  the  hills  furnishes  pasture  the  year  round 
for  innumerable  cattle. 

The  climate  of  Southern  Brazil  in  the  winter 
season  is  Edenic  as  far  south  as  Sao  Paulo. 
There  is  occasional  frost  enough  to  blacken  ten-  ■ 
der  leaves,  but  nof  enough  to  kill  the  greater 
part  of  the  vegetation.  Twenty-five  out  of 
thirty  days  which  I spent  in  the  States  of  Sao 
Paulo  and  Minas  Geras  reminded  me  contin- 
ually of  George  Herbert’s  lines: 

“ Sweet  day,  so  cool,  so  calm,  so  bright; 

The  bridal  of  the  earth  and  sky.” 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  COUNTRY. 

Although  the  first  European  colofnist  came 
to  Brazil  about  the  same  time  that  the  Pil- 
grim fathers  came  to  North  America,  the  re- 
sources of  that  splendid  country  are  as  yet 
almost  wholly  . undeveloped.  Instead  of  the 
80,000,000  people  who  inhabit  the  States  of 
North  America,  the  last  census  gave  Brazil  a 
population  of  less  than  20,000,000.  There  are 
places  where  gold  nuggets  are  found  lying 
about  on  the  surface  of  the  ground,  and  many 
places  where  good  wages  could  be  made  wash- 
ing the  sand  in  the  streams  for  gold,  and  yet 
gold  mining  is  carried  on  to  a very  limited 
extent.  There  are  railroads  connecting  most 
of  the  larger  cities  near  the  coast,  and  two 
or  three  that  penetrate  the  interior  for  several 
hundred  miles.  These  roads  have  been  built 
chiefiy  by  English  capital,  and  are  only  the 
beginning  of  what  is  necessary  to  furnish  trans- 

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portation  for  the  people  and  the  products  of 
the  soil.  Interior  transportation  is  chiefly  done 
on  two-wheeled  w^agons,  whose  screeching 
wooden  axles  announce  their  approach  for  miles 
before  they  come  in  sight,  pulled  by  ox  teams 
over  roads  which  are  simply  gullys  that  have 
been  dug  by  the  wagon  wheels  in  the  soft, 
gravelly  soil.  The  transportation  of  his  farm 
produce  by  this  means  costs  the  farmer  almost 
as  mmch  as  he  can  get  for  it  when  he  reaches 
the  market.  It  is  no  wonder,  therefore,  that 
Brazilian  trade  plays  such  a relatively  insig- 
nificant part  in  the  world’s  commerce  as  it 
does  to-day.  There  are  some  very  delightful 
and  hospitable  homes  among  the  well-to-do  of 
the  rural  population.  The  great  majority  of 
the  farmhouses,  however,  that  one  passes  are 
of  the  most  primitive  character  in  the  matter 
of  style  and  appointment. 

GOVERXME.XT. 

One  reason  for  this  slow  development  is  per- 
haps the  semi-tropical  climate,  which  is  not  con- 
ducive to  energy  and  enterprise.  The  neces- 
sities of  life  being  so  easy  of  attainment  has  a 
tendency  to  make  the  people  satisfied  merely 
to  obtain  these  without  thinking  very  much 
about  the  progress  of  the  country.  Another 
reason  is  the  form  of  government  which  the 
first  colonists  brought  with  them  from  Portu- 
gal. The  line  of  emperors  culminating  in  the 
last  Dom  Pedro  were  mostly  men  of  high  char- 
acter. Dom  Pedro  himself  was  a man  of  benev- 
olent disposition  and  commendable  public  spirit. 


He  was  nat  a very  strong  character,  however, 
and  was  always  surrounded  by  a very  numerous 
body  of  officials  who  administered  the  govern- 
ment mainly  in  their  own  personal  interest  and 
always  on  the  principle  of  killing  the  goose  that 
lays  the  golden  egg.  In  1889  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment was  overthrown  and  a republic  was 
set  up  whose  constitution  was  modeled  very 
closely  after  that  of  the  United  States  of  North 
America.  The  Brazilians,  however,  obtained 
their  free  institutions  without  having  had  any 
previous  training  in  the  art  of  administering 
them  and  without  paying  any  price  for  them 
either  of  blood  or  treasure.  The  mutiny  of  a 
few  regiments  one  night  at  the  capitol  was  the 
only  public  disturbance  attending  the  change 
of  government.  Since  the  republic  was  estab- 
lished, the  same  officials  or  their  immediate  de- 
scendants have  been  in  power,  with  no  good 
Dom  Pedro  to  guide  and  restrain  them.  The 
National  Congress  has  been  almost  wholly  un- 
der their  influence.  Their  principal  idea  seems 
to  have  been  to  obtain  government  revenue 
rather  than  to  legislate  for  the  general  pros- 
perity of  the  country.  They  impose  no  tax  on 
land,  making  it  easy  for  the  old  and  wealthy 
families  to  hold  very  large  bodies  of  it  with- 
out expense,  thereby  preventing  the  occupation 
of  it  by  those  who  would  develop  and  utilize 
it.  They  impose  a tax  of  6 per  cent  on  all 
property  passing  from  one  hand  to  another, 
thus  attaching  a penalty  to  the  transaction  of 
real  estate  business.  When  our  government 
removed  the  tariff  on  Brazilian  coffee,  which 


9 


had  almast  paralyzed  that  industry,  instead  of 
allowing  the  coffee  planter  to  enjoy  the  pros- 
perity which  would  have  come  to  him  and 
thereby  securing  the  general  prosperity  of  the 
country,  they  imposed  an  export  tax  of  about 
the  same  amount,  thus  securing  large  govern- 
ment revenues,  but  destroying  the  profsperity 
of  all  that  part  of  Brazil  of  which  coffee  is  the 
principal  staple.  Their  financial  legislation  has 
resulted  in  fluctuations  in  the  value  of  their 
standard  coin,  the  milreis,  which  have  reduced 
almost  all  business  to  a guessing  basis.  Dur- 
ing the  last  ten  years  the  value  of  this  coin  in 
gold  has  ranged  from  121/2  cents  to  45  cents. 
Its  par  value  is  54  cents. 

RELIGIOX. 

The  chief  reason  of  all  why  Brazil  has  not 
kept  pace  with  this  country  in  its  development 
is  unquestionably  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that, 
until  about  forty  years  ago,  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church  had  uninterrupted  sway  over  the 
people.  This  leads  us  to  the  topic  of  Brazil  as 
a mission  field.  Is  it  nat  already  a Christian 
country?  And  even  though  we  may  regard  the 
form  of  Christianity  prevailing  there  as  less 
perfect  than  ours,  is  it  generous  and  liberal- 
minded  in  us  to  be  sending  missionaries  to  this 
Christian  country? 

It  is  not  my  purpose  in  speaking  of  Brazil 
as  a mission  field  to  denounce  Roman  Catholi- 
cism in  the  abstract.  I believe  that  church  to 
be,  wherever  found,  a corrupted  form  of  Chris- 
tianity. We  must  also  recognize  the  fact  that 
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many  of  the  saints  of  God  are  to  be  found  with- 
in its  pale.  I shall  speak  only  of  that  type 
of  Roman  Catholicism  which  is  found  in  Bra- 
zil, and  shall  not  say  anything  of  it  more  se- 
vere than  the  Pope  himself  has  said  in  numer- 
ous encyclical  letters  addressed  to  the  South 
American  clergy,  pointing  out  their  shortcom- 
ings and  pleading  for  reforms. 

If  Christianity  consisted  in  names  and  exter- 
nals, Brazil  w’ould  perhaps  be  the  most  Chris- 
tian country  in  the  world.  Every  village  has 
its  large  wooden  cross  erected  on  the  tallest 
neighboring  hill,  which  is  supposed  to  give  its 
Christian  character  to  the  village.  Every  large 
farm  has  a church  as  a part  of  its  equipment. 
Padres  are  thick  in  the  streets  of  every  city, 
and  from  a hill  in  Sao  Joao  de  ’1  Rey,  a city  of 
about  ten  thousand  people,  I counted  the  spires 
of  thirteen  large  churches,  besides  a multitude 
of  chapels  and  shrines.  Religious  festivals  are 
so  numerous  that  they  seriously  interfere  with 
the  transaction  of  business.  They  are  held 
frequently  throughout  the  year,  sometimes  last- 
ing a week,  and  the  cost  of  the  fireworks  and 
other  things  used  in  connection  with  them 
amounts  up  to  the  thousands  of  dollars.  At 
least  one-half  of  the  male  children  are  named 
after  one  or  another  of  the  twelve  apostles  or 
of  some  saint  in  the  Roman  calendar.  A large 
proportion  of  the  towns  and  villages  have  scrip- 
tural names.  A saloon  in  the  city  of  Rio,  hav- 
ing the  usual  spectacular  display  of  bottles  in 
its  front  window,  had  the  name  written  above 


11 


the  doer:  “The  Restaurant  of  the  Children  of 
Heaven/' 

When  we  come  to  the  realities,  however, 
that  should  correspond  to  these  names,  we  find 
a condition  of  things  that  is  as  nearly  as  pos- 
sible the  exact  opposite  of  what  the  names 
would  imply.  Professor  Agassiz,  who  was  by 
no  means  prejudiced  against  Roman  Catholi- 
cism, after  three  years’  observation  of  the  Bra- 
zilian priesthood,  says  of  them:  “Their  igno- 
rance is  patent;  their  character,  most  corrupt; 
and  their  influence,  deep  seated  and  powerful.” 
For  them  to  marry  would  be  contrary  to  the 
canons  of  the  church  and  would  lead  to  their 
deposition.  It  does  not  interfere,  however,  with 
their  official  standing  when,  as  many  of  them 
do,  they  live  in  open  concubinage.  I was  struck 
with  the  similarity  of  the  relatio’n  to  the  people 
of  many  of  the  Romish  priests  in  Brazil  to 
that  of  the  Buddhist  priesthood  in  China  and 
Japan.  They  are  considered  necessary  in  con- 
nection with  certain  functions  and  occasions  in 
the  life  of  the  people.  They  must  be  on  hand 
to  perform  the  marriage  ceremony,  to  admin- 
ister extreme  unction  to  the  dying,  to  bury  the 
dead,  and  to  absolve  those  whose  consciences 
trouble  them  on  account  of  their  crimes.  Apart 
from  these  official  functions,  the  best  people 
have  no  use  for  them,  and  they  are  perhaps  the 
most  disreputable  element  in  the  communities 
where  they  reside. 

There  is  a class  of  people  in  Brazil,  repre- 
senting the  old  aristocracy,  who  are  highly  ed- 
ucated, who  have  elegant  homes  in  which  they 


12 


dispense  charming  hospitality,  and  who  are  un- 
surpassed in  all  the  arts  and  amenities  of  so- 
cial life.  Many  of  them  are  attached  outwardly 
to  the  Romish  Church  because  it  is  respectable 
to  be  so,  but  most  of  them  have  long  ago  be- 
come disgusted  with  the  ignorance  and  super- 
stition which  are  the  most  obtrusive  features 
in  the  life  of  both  priesthood  and  church,  and 
have  become  either  French  Positivists  and  Ma- 
terialists, or  have  reacted  to  the  opposite  ex- 
treme and  become  Spiritualists. 

So  far  as  the  common  people  are  concerned, 
the  Romish  Church,  which  had  exclusive  con- 
trol of  educational  matters  for  nearly  three 
hundred  years,  brought  less  than  10  per  cent 
of  them  to  the  intellectual  plane  of  being  able 
to  read  and  write.  Religiously,  the  ignorant 
masses  are  what  they  could  not  help  from 
being  under  the  tuition  of  such  a priesthood 
as  the  one  described  above.  Even  if  the  people 
could  read  the  Bible,  it  is  a forbidden  book, 
and  the  public  burning  of  Bibles  by  the  priests 
in  the  streets  is  still  a common  occurrence. 
Under  the  empire,  the  priests  had  a monopoly 
of  celebrating  marriage,  and  were  so  exorbitant 
in  their  charges  that  many  poor  people  were 
forced  either  to  live  in  celibacy  or  to  forego 
the  sanction  of  the  marriage  bond.  Some  of 
the  superstitious  rites  practiced  by  the  people 
are  too  gross  and  revolting  to  be  described.  The 
Christ  whom  they  worship  is  the  dead  Christ. 
The  Virgin  Mary  is  the  one  to  whom  they  look 
as  a Saviour.  Images  of  God  the  Father  are 
paraded  before  the  people.  I saw  at  Lavras  a 


i: 


company  of  very  black  Africans,  in  gaudy  ar- 
ray, bearing  banners  with  doves  embroidered 
on  them,  beating  tambourines  and  performing 
dances  similar  to  those  that  may  now  be  seen 
in  the  villages  of  Central  Africa.  This  pro- 
cession was  supposed  to  be  in  honor  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Images  of  the  Virgin  and  the  saints 
are  scattered  along  the  highways,  where  their 
shrines  are  visited  and  enriched  by  the  de- 
luded people.  Under  the  empire  there  was  an 
idol  in  the  city  of  Bahia  which  bore  the  name 
of  General  St.  Antony.  The  idol  was  regular- 
ly commissioned  and  received  a general’s  salary 
from  the  government.  This  salary,  of  course, 
was  handled  by  the  priest  who  kept  charge  of 
the  idol.  About  twelve  miles  out  from  Per- 
nambuco, on  the  railroad,  I passed  a large  farm 
owned  by  Sr.  Alho,  a lawyer  in  the  city.  It 
was  equipped  with  all  the  buildings  and  ma- 
chinery pertaining  to  a first-class  farm,  includ- 
ing a church,  but  the  land  was  not  in  cultiva- 
tion, and  all  the  buildings  were  in  ruins  except 
the  dw^elling  and  the  church,  which  were  in 
excellent  repair.  The  explanation  was  that, 
some  time  previously,  Sr.  Alho  obtained  pos- 
session of  a human  skeleton,  which  he  suc- 
ceeded in  persuading  the  people  was  that  of  a 
person  formerly  known  in  that  region  as  St. 
Severino.  He  had  the  skeleton  stuffed  and  cov- 
ered with  leather  and  set  it  up  in  the  church 
as  an  object  of  worship.  St.  Severino  proved 
to  be  a miracle  worker,  whose  benefits  in  the 
way  of  bringing  about  happy  issues  of  things 
in  general  were  in  proportion  to  the  value  of 


14 


the  votive  offerings  made  at  his  shrine.  The 
income  derived  from  this  source  belonged  to 
Sr.  Alho  and  proved  so  handsome  that  he  found 
himself  able  to  live  on  it  comfortably  in  the 
city  without  the  trouble  of  working  his  farm. 
This  is  not  at  all  an  extreme  illustration  of  the 
degradation  to  which  the  so-called  Christianity 
of  Brazil  has  come.  Wherever  such  supersti- 
tions prevail,  whether  they  have  attached  to 
them  the  name  of  Christian  or  pagan,  we  find 
a proper  field  for  the  missionary  operations  of 
our  Protestant  Christendom. 

MISSION  WORK. 

The  laws  of  Brazil  guaranteeing  religious 
liberty  are  all  that  could  be  desired.  The  ex- 
ecution of  those  laws,  however,  especially  in 
places  remote  from  the  seat  of  government,  is 
often  very  difficult.  Such  is  the  fanaticism  of 
the  people,  stirred  up  as  it  often  is  by  the  local 
priest,  that  a Protestant  missionary  goes  into 
a locality  in  the  interior  of  Brazil  where  en- 
lightenment has  not  yet  penetrated  at  the  peril 
of  his  life.  One  of  the  features  of  Brazilian 
social  life,  brought  over  from  Portugal  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  was  the  professional  assas- 
sin. Organized  bands  of  these  are  still  to  be 
found  in  many  places,  which  are  usually  in  the 
service  of  the  political  leader  of  the  locality, 
who  protects  them  from  the  law  and  protects 
from  them  whom  he  chooses,  and  uses  them  to 
remove  inconvenient  obstructions  in  the  way 
of  his  political  ambition.  These  bands  have 
proven  ready  instruments  in  the  hands  of  fanat- 
15 


icai  priests  in  their  work  of  opposing  the  intro- 
duction of  Protestantism.  Only  a few  years 
ago  one  of  our  missionaries  in  the  town  of 
Conhotinho,  about  one  hundred  miles  in  the 
interior  from  the  city  of  Recife,  v/as  assaulted 
in  the  street  by  one  of  these  assassins.  He 
would  have  been  killed  had  not  a native  min- 
ister riding  by  his  side  interposed  his  own  per- 
son and  received  the  assassin’s  dagger  in  his 
own  heart.  Riotous  demonstrations  have  been 
made  in  many  other  places  when  missionaries 
have  attempted  to  open  work  where  it  had  not 
previously  been  done.  The  people  of  Brazil, 
however,  when  once  they  have  given  ear  to  the 
gospel  message,  have  proven  remarkably  re- 
sponsive to  it,  and  the  work  of  the  Presbyte- 
rians in  Brazil  has  had  a more  rapid  develop- 
ment than  in  any  other  of  our  foreign  mission 
fields. 

The  first  Presbyterian  foreign  missionary 
work  ever  undertaken  was  the  sending  out  of 
two  ministers  and  fourteen  students  by  John 
Calvin  and  the  Genevan  clergy  to  an  island  in 
the  harbor  of  Rio  de  Janeiro.  After  a few 
years  of  successful  work  this  missionary  party 
was  murdered,  and  those  who  had  adhered  to 
them  w’ere  scattered  by  persecution. 

All  the  principal  Protestant  denominations 
of  this  country  are  working  in  Brazil.  The  two 
largest  missions  are  those  of  the  Methodists 
and  the  Presbyterians.  The  Methodists  were 
late  in  beginning  their  work,  not  arriving  on 
the  field  until  1876.  They  have  carried  it  on 
with  characteristic  aggressiveness,  and  have 


16 


wisely  devated  mucli  of  their  energy  and  means 
to  the  development  of  a native  ministry.  They 
have  a well-established  college  and  theological 
seminary  at  Jiiiz  de  Fora,  and  have  gathered 
about  three  thousand  communicants  into  the 
church.  The  Northern  Presbyterian  Church 
began  work  in  1859.  The  first  Presbyterian 
Church  was  organized  in  1862.  McKenzie  Col- 
lege, at  Sao  Paulo,  has  excellent  buildings,  a 
fairly  good  endowment,  and  about  five  hundred 
students  in  attendance.  In  1869  the  Southern 
Presbyterian  Church  began  work  in  Campinas, 
in  the  Province  of  Sao  Paulo.  The  first  mis- 
sionaries organized  The  International  College 
of  Campinas  and  conducted  a successful  school 
at  that  point  for  about  twenty  years.  Owing 
to  successive  visitations  of  yellow  fever,  this 
school  was  finally  abandoned,  and  the  Campinas 
mission  was  transferred  to  Lavras,  in  the  State 
of  Minas.  At  this  point  a very  successful  girls’ 
school  and  also  an  Industrial  School  for  Boys 
has  been  established.  At  Campinas  a marsh 
at  the  base  of  the  hill  on  which  the  city  is 
built,  which  was  the  breeding  ground  for  yel- 
low fever  germs,  has  been  cleared  and  drained 
and  a beautiful  stream  of  clear  water  now 
runs  through  it  with  grassy  meadow  banks.  A 
supply  of  good  water  has  been  brought  down 
from  the  hills  and  the  very  best  modern  sys- 
tem of  sanitation  adopted.  There  has  been  no 
epidemic  of  fever  for  several  years,  and  it  is 
not  believed  that  there  can  be  any  more  of  such 
a malignant  type  as  those  which  formerly  pre- 
vailed on  account  of  local  causes  which  have 


17 


now  been  removed.  The  school  building  at 
Campinas  was  recently  purchased  by  the  Synod, 
and  the  Theological  Seminary  formerly  con- 
ducted at  Sao  Paulo  is  now  conducted  there. 

A training  school  for  native  candidates  for 
the  ministry  is  also  being  conducted  at  Gar- 
anhuns,  in  North  Brazil.  The  plan  of  our 
church  and  of  the  Northern  Presbyterian 
Church,  which  works  in  cooperation  with  us, 
is  to  develop  a number  of  schools  which  shall 
be  feeders  to  one  higher  school  where  Prot- 
estant young  men  can  receive  professional  train- 
ing and  where  the  future  ministry  and  lead- 
ers of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Brazil  may 
receive  a training  based  on  Protestant  instead 
of  Jesuit  ethics.  The  educational  work  carried 
on  by  Protestants  in  Brazil  has  furnished  the 
model  on  which  the  whole  system  of  public 
education  is  now  being  conducted. 

Our  Brazilian  Christians  have  shown  a most 
commendable  spirit  of  liberality,  and  have  de- 
veloped rapidly  in  the  direction  of  self-support. 
In  nearly  all  the  cities  and  larger  towns  com- 
fortable church  buildings  have  been  erected  al- 
most entirely  by  native  contributions.  The 
Presbyterian  Church  at  Rio  has  a nice  stone 
building  and  comfortable  manse  and  gives  an 
ample  support  to  its  own  pastor,  who  is  a man 
of  learning  and  eloquence.  In  the  year  1901 
three  members  of  this  congregation  contributed 
$6,000  to  the  benevolent  operations  of  the 
church.  A theological  seminary  building  cost- 
ing $25,000  has  been  erected  at  Sao  Paulo.  The 
money  for  this  building  came  entirely  from  the 


18 


native  church.  At  present  there  are  not  less 
than  ten  thousand  communicants  in  the  Synod 
of  Brazil.  The  church  is  organized  with  its 
regular  Boards  of  Home  and  Foreign  Missions. 

In  1903  there  was  a division  in  the  church. 
The  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church 
in  Sao  Paulo  undertook  to  induce  the  Synod 
to  make  membership  in  the  order  of  Free  Ma- 
sons a bar  to  communion.  Failing  to  carry  his 
point  in  the  Synod,  he  seceded,  and  with  six 
other  native  ministers  and  seven  ruling  elders 
set  up  the  Independent  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Brazil.  What  will  be  the  final  result  of  this 
unfortunate  occurrence  cannot  yet  be  foreseen. 
It  is  not  impossible  that  it  may  result  in  great- 
er activity  in  both  branches  of  the  native 
church  and  the  more  rapid  evangelization  of  the 
country. 

If  all  our  foreign  missionaries  shomld  now 
retire  from  Brazil,  leaving  the  native  church 
to  its  own  resources,  it  is  sufficiently  well  es- 
tablished to  maintain  itself,  and  would  both 
live  and  grow.  The  aim  which  We  have  in  view 
in  all  foreign  missionary  work — namely,  the 
establishment  of  a self-governing  and  self-prop- 
agating church — has  been  to  this  extent  at- 
tained in  Brazil.  That  church,  however,  will 
need  our  help  for  perhaps  another  quarter  of  a 
century  in  order  to  carry  on  successfully  the 
immense  evangelistic  work  which  remains  to 
be  done  before  Protestantism  attains  the  place 
which  it  ought  to  hold  in  Brazil.  Especially 
will  our  help  be  needed  in  furnishing  for  the 
Brazilian  church  an  adequate  supply  of  prop- 


19 


erly  trained  and  qualified  native  ministers,  eld- 
ers, and  leaders.  Furnished  with  these,  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Brazil  will  be  ready  to 
take  its  place  among  the  strong  and  well-organ- 
ized forces  that  are  working  together  in  the 
great  effort  to  evangelize  the  world  in  this  gen- 
eration. 


Executive  Committee  Foreign  Missions 
Presbyterian  Church,  U.  S. 
Nashville,  Tenn. 
lM-11-10 
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